Depression can be a risk factor for Alzheimers disease

when Alzheimer’s occurs jointly with the depression, are better preserved cognitive functions such as memory of learning, and features such as calculating suffer one greater decline.

Sant Boi de Llobregat (Barcelona), March 2012.- The loss of mental functions is one of the key symptoms for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. However, disorders such as depression also have deficits in cognition, becoming a risk factor of this dementia. This has been one of the topics covered by the III Conference of clinical psychopathology and Mental health, held yesterday in Sant Boi de Llobregat and organized by sisters hospital.

Patients with depression in Alzheimer’s disease (DeEA) presented a greater preservation of some cognitive functions such as memory of learning, and a more rapid deterioration in other functions such as the calculation ”, according to the study presented by Joan Vilalta-Franch, health care Institute psychiatrist of Gerona. For this reason, the time lag between the onset of symptoms and the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is higher in these patients than in those without DeEA. This fact can be explained because there is tendency to dignosticar first of depression when depressive and cognitive symptoms overlap ”, explains Vilalta-Franch.

The DeEA responds to a profile of specific cognitive impairment, but there are sufficient data connection if this profile behaves as a cause or consequence of depression. For this reason that the brain functioning should be seen in a full ”, has remarked Vilalta-Franch.

The rescue of the patient in the process of recovery

In the medical tradition, the recovery of a person with a mental illness has associated with the practical disappearance of symptoms, sequels and derivative disabilities, so that the patient can return to normal in their everyday lives without specifying specific care. In many cases, are drugs that help reduce symptoms, but its consumption is no guarantee of recovery.

In recent years, the predominance of Biological Psychiatry, or rather, of the drug-centred psychiatry has made the person with mental illness happens to be on the periphery of the focus of attention and copper value as consumer potential of antipsychotic drugs and other drugs ”Dr. Mariano Hernández Monsalve, head of the Centre for Mental health of Tetuán (Madrid) has criticized.

According to the psychiatrist, the most important in the recovery process is the rescue ” the patient. Therefore, has defended the design of an alternative to traditional healthcare practices in which relevance is given to the stories in first person of the patient: the idea is to give a twist to mental health policies working in an ensamblaje-integración between staff and clinical recovery, with a predominance of this last perspective ”.

More training for professionals in sexual health

The relationship between psychopathology and sexuality has been another of the topics covered by the Conference III of clinical psychopathology and Mental health. In this sense, Dr. Antonio Palha, President of the International Academy of Clinical Sexology and President of the Portuguese society of Psychiatry, has shown that there is a shortage of health professionals with knowledge about human and clinical sexuality, indispensable for a correct clinical assessment of persons with mental illness ”.

Dr. Palha has warned of the need of help patients have a healthy sexual expression to improve their quality of life, as well as provide them with the necessary information on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases ”.

The difficulty of classifying mental illness

The III Conference of clinical psychopathology and Mental Health have also counted on the collaboration of Germán Berrios, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), who has thought about the difficulty of classifying mental diseases according to their symptoms. The epistemiología of mental illness is complex and must be based on the conception of the object to be classified as a combination of biological, cultural and moral aspects ”, explained Berrios.

Days of clinical psychopathology and Mental Health

Aimed at professionals working in the mental health field belonging to the centers of the Congregation of the hospital Sisters of the Sacred Heart in in Spain, these days bring together national and international experts of recognised prestige in order to share the latest scientific and technical advances in mental health.

Taking into account the different care lines of sisters hospital centres in our country, days addresses the psychopathology from different specialties, in order to facilitate the exchange of experiences among the attendees and adding synergies for better diagnosis and treatment of mental diseases ”, explains Dr. Cebamanos, Chief clinical rehabilitation hospital of Benito Menni CASM unit and responsible for psychiatric information magazine.

With this third edition in Barcelona, the days of clinical psychopathology and Mental health are consolidated as a space for specialized reflection of the highest level within the framework of the hospital values that identify the Congregation.